The Train Ticket Girl
by X-Scree Scree-X
Summary: When Mush discovered a mysterious girl, who can't talk and has completely forgotten who she is, Mush must work his magic to help her home. My Entry for the NYNA Summer Contest!
1. Long Nights, Little Sleep

**The Train Ticket Girl**

**Chapter One**

**Long Nights, Little Sleep**

It was just another winter night; inch deep snow rested just down stairs and out the door of the old building I was living in. Snow flakes drifted pass the broken and shattered windows on the wall, and even a few flakes found their way inside our bunk room. A chilly air forbade anyone to try and live through this winter without shoes on their feet and a jacket on their back, let alone a warm bed to sleep in and a roof over their head. Lucky for most people, they had all those things. All the rich, hoity toity people at the top of the food chain; what with their three story houses, maids, butlers and fancy food. But I wasn't one of those rich snobs, thank God. I was one of the thousand newsies living in New York, trying to scratch a dime a day with out starving to death, or freezing in the snow. And if I do say so myself, I did a damn well good job at it! I had made it this far, hadn't I?

I was only fifteen; nearly old enough to start a job, but still too young to find a wife and start a family. Not that I had the money to do it.

As I had said, it was just another cold December snow, drifting through the window a few rows from my bed. And even though I was a good few feet away, I still felt the nipping cold biting at my uncovered face. The blanket tucked over and around me did little to keep the warmth in and the cold out, and no matter how many times I tossed and turned, I could not find a comfortable spot on my thin mattress.

Usually I didn't find it this hard to sleep; I'd get into a bed before anyone else, wrap the towel I call a blanket around my too large body and think of better times. If I felt hungry, I thought of piles of food on a large banquet table. If I was cold, I thought of how the hot summer ahead would melt the snow. And almost every time, I could fall asleep. But tonight... tonight, something pulled at my stomach. It wasn't hunger (no, I knew the feeling of hunger all too well), and I definitely wasn't over fed. It was... anticipation. But for what, I couldn't tell you.

For the millionth time that night, I rolled over, facing away from the window, to hopefully keep myself warm. Unfortunately, I was met with an unpleasant surprise from my bunk mates. Snitch and Itey, who shared the top bunk of the bed across from me, were both snoring to the high heavens like there was no tomorrow. If there was one thing I couldn't stand, it was snoring. Just my luck. So, sending a glare their way, I pulled my pillow out from under head, and rested on side of my head on my mattress as I plopped the pillow over my other ear, hopeful it would keep me warm and block out the snoring. Yes, it kept my face warm, but the snoring just seemed to grown louder. No doubt it was Tumbler, who slept below me. Although he was a small kid, he could sure saw logs in his sleep.

So, letting out a growl of dismay, I sat up, both my pillow and blanket falling from my body. I was soon quite awake as the cool air rushed over my body, and I shivered as I jumped from my bed to the ground, my feet making a light smack as I hit the wooden floor. I then began to blindly search the ground for a shirt to cover my bare chest. Unlike most of the others, I slept without a shirt on, even in the middle of winter. I finally found my shirt crumbled just under Tumblers bed with his shoes, and as I slipped the blue button up over my shoulders, the small kid let out a deep snore and rolled over. I rolled my eyes sarcastically to myself as I began looking for my shorts. I would have reached for pants, any sane man would have, but I didn't have the money to buy any new clothes, so I just lived with what I had; shorts. Finding them, I slipped them over my white underwear before I began slipping my shoes on and tying them blindly. They were probably tied wrong, but I didn't care. The last thing I grabbed was my jacket. Although, like everything else I owned, it was thin, it helped.

With that, I quietly began my way through the rows of boys, my hands out in front of me as I tried not to run anything. By the time I made it to the door, I had banged my knee twice and almost fell right on a sleep Racetrack, but no harm had, luckily, been done. Once at the door I began to slowly open it, sneak through it, and close it quietly behind me. I then carefully made my way down the stairs, fearful I might miss a step. But once at the bottom, I let out a successful sigh and ran my hand through my curly brown hair. I then cursed softly; I had left my hat sitting on my bed post upstairs. Turning around, I looked fearfully up at the stairs as my eyes began to adjust to the dark. It wasn't worth it. If I did go back up, I might wake someone up. Then I'd be interrogated and yelled at for wanting to sneak out in the middle of the night and waking someone.

Before going for the door, I stopped at a small, rickety bookshelf with a couple of old, worn books. Since I was still partly blind and unable to see the faded blue book, I brought my hands up to the dusty books and counted the books from the left side of the shelf wall. Once at the fifth book, I slipped it out. It was a fake book, made by Kloppman to hide the key so we couldn't sneak out late at night like I did. Fortunately, while I was trying to find a way out when I was younger, I made a racket, and Kloppman came running. I then, from the shadows, watched as Kloppman got the key from the book and opened the door to see if anyone was out there.

So once the old key had turned the lock, I placed it back in the book, and replaced the book to its' rightful spot on the book shelf. As I left, I locked the door behind me. I probably wasn't going to be back until it was time to sell papers any way. The only let down of my nightly trips was Kloppman yelling at me when he didn't find me sleeping in my bed. He released all his old man fury on us if he catches us out of bed in the morning, but he only tells us to not do it again (which never does stop us).

Once out on the lodging house steps, I looked down the snow covered streets. Like every other night I had been out, they were completely empty. Who else would be taking a midnight stroll like I was? Just by seeing the pale light on the snow, I could tell tomorrow was going to be a hard day to sell. With the snow so deep, few people would be venturing out to grab the news, and few newsies would be out selling, so why bother with the news? All Pulitzer's headlines would be, "Snowstorm Drags on for Months!", and nobody needed to pay a penny just for news that was, literally, hitting them in the face.

So with another glance around the shadows, I began a slow, but steady pace through the thick snow. In no time my shocks and shoes were soaked through, making every step agony. But I didn't stop. Anything would be better than just laying in bed, trying to sleep. Even this was more exciting. Not having any idea where I was going, I took off down a shadowed alley way. All my nightly trips started like this; choosing a random direction and just traveling that way to see where it led you. So for a few hours, I just walked through the snow. I went through Central Park, went over the Brooklyn Bridge a couple of times, and even went right by Sheepsteads Races once. Before I knew it, I had made it all the way to the train station, which was clear on the other side of New York from my lodging house.

Letting out a sigh as I continued my walk, I watched my breath billow around the air for a moment, before it vanished. Moving myself from the middle of the street to the sidewalk across from the train station, I walked in the light that streamed from the side walk lights. Finally deciding it was time to give my feet a rest, I plopped down on a stair that wasn't covered in snow, I took in my surroundings. It was a pretty narrow street with a couple of stores along the side I sat on with the train station across from it. The street was actually lit up fairly well, and I found myself finding less and less shadows.

Suddenly, the wind picked up, and whipped something just at my side. Letting out a little gasp, I jumped up from my seat, my dark brown eyes flying to the object whipping in the wind. I wasn't usually a person who got scared easily, but once in a while, especially when I was alone, things would make me jump. Peering down into a large mound of snow, I saw a small piece of paper buried in the snow. Moving around so the lamp light could better show what it was, I noticed it was a train ticket. It wasn't very surprising, seeing as I was right across the street from the train station, but why would someone just leave a train ticket in a mound of snow. Cautiously, I reached out toward it and grabbed hold of it as it whipped around in the wind. I tried pulling it, but it seemed frozen in the snow. So, giving it another, harder yank, the ticket was free of the snow.

Along with a pale, blue hand grasping the ticket.

* * *

**So... Is it alright? Do any of you like it?**

**Review please, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I'll answer as many of them as I can!**

**Thanks again!**

**~Scree  
**


	2. The Frozen Girl

**The Train Ticket Girl**

**Chapter Two**

**The Frozen Girl**

Upon seeing the hand before me, I released the ticket and jumped backwards, taking in a deep breath of freezing air, and almost choking myself in the process. The blue hand, it's tiny fingers clenched around the ticket, fell lightly against the snow on the top of the mound, unmoving with no signs of life. I quickly turned away from the mound of snow and began to hurry back down the street, my hands shoved in my pockets as I tried to look as casual as I could. But once a few feet away, I stopped dead. It seemed that the cold air around me hand frozen my innards. What if that hand was connected to a body? What if that body was just barely alive? Swallowing the bile that had risen in my throat, I turned around, my wide brown eyes landing on the dormant hand. It suddenly twitched and I flinched back. I then mentally slapped myself. The stupid shadows were just playing tricks on my brain. I was scared out of my whits; things were bound to seem more frightening when I was scared.

So with immense caution, I took a few steps closer to the hand. Then a few more when nothing popped out. Finally finding my courage, I reached down to the hand when I was close enough to touch it. The skin of the person was a light blue and pale white around the knuckles as it help on to the ticket. Touching the flesh of the hand sent shivers up my spine. It was so _cold. _Colder than the air around me, that's for sure. So I took the wrist of the person with both my hands, and pulled. At first, just like the ticket, nothing moved. It was as if it had been frozen in to the snow. But with a few more tugs, the arm began to appear, and then an elbow, and a shoulder covered in a shirt. Before long, I had discovered the whole upper torso of a girl. She didn't seem too much younger than I was; thirteen, maybe fourteen at the most. She wore her dark brown hair short, stopping at her shoulders. The bangs she had hid her face from my view, and once I pushed them back, I gasped. Her whole face was blue as well. Her eyelashes were frozen, her lips were a darker blue then her skin... if this girl was alive, it'd be a miracle. I checked her pulse with my fingers on the side of her neck, just like Kloppman had told us to do if we found someone just laying in the street. There was a pulse there, alright, but it was so faint, I had to strain to find it.

I finally unburied the rest of the girl after a couple more minutes, and found she was wearing clothes like a newsie; button up shirt, pants that were too long, a vest, shoes... but no jacket. Who would go wandering around, even if it was just to go to the train station, without a jacket on? Finding no sort of jacket in the pile of snow she had been buried in, I took my jacket off and wrapped it around her upper body, hoping it might help a little. Of course, now _I _was freezing, but I could deal with it; and obviously, this girl couldn't. I carefully picked her up in my arms, cradling her as gently as I could. Her now wet hair chilled my shirt as her head rested on my shoulder, but, again, I was fine with it.

She wasn't too heavy, but she wasn't exactly as light as a feather, so I struggled to keep her in my arms the entire way home. Only when we were a few blocks away from the lodging house did the sun start to light the sky, even if it had not yet shown its' self along the horizon. By the time I reached the lodging house steps, the pale orange sun had risen to the horizon, warming me only slightly in the chilly air. I labored the girl up the stairs in my now tired arms, and leaned against the door for a moment to catch my breath. I then balanced her between the door and one of my arms as I began to knock wildly on the front door, calling for Kloppman. I knew that would wake him up; even the slightest noise awoke him.

I once again took the girl in my arms and stepped back for the door to open. And that it did. The door opened to Kloppman, dressed in his pyjamas and a tired look on his face.

"What is it? What do youse-?" Kloppman paused once he saw me standing there were a frozen girl in my arms.

"Mush... what're ya doing outa bed?"Kloppman nearly growled, his eyes going from me to the girl.

"I was jus' walkin' around las' night, Kloppman, an' I found her." I looked down to the girl in my arms, who had started to shiver violently, "Please jus' take a look at 'er? She's shiverin' badly, an' when I found 'er, she was blue." She still was slightly blue, but the colors were starting to lighten, and she even had rosy cheeks now.

I did desperately want to help this girl; I mean, who deserved to die like this? Frozen in a pile of snow before she could even make it to where she was going? Where ever that was...

Letting out a sigh, Kloppman ran an old, weathered hand over his wrinkled face as he thought on it.

"Fine. Bring her in." He said reluctantly as he stepped aside to allow me in. I flashed him a relieved smile as I headed through the door and around his counter to his room. He had an extra bed in there for anyone who was sick, so none of the other boys fell ill. Kloppman had been a doctor's assistant during his younger years, and knew everything there was to know about medicines and sickness. And it came in handy when you had a bunch of dirty news boys who liked to scrape themselves up living with you.

I set the cold girl on the bed and turned to Kloppman who had entered behind us. He then closed the door behind himself and locked it so he wouldn't be disturbed.

"Now Mush... where'd you find her?" Kloppman asked as he sat down gently on the bed by the girl, examining her and every once in a while checking for a vital signs.

"Over by da train station." I mumbled, watching as he did his work, "She was buried in a huge pile ah snow."

"Mhmm..." Kloppman said, more to himself than to me as he put his hand to her head, "Doesn't look like she's suffered from frost bite, the lucky girl... but the obvious signs of hypothermia are appearing..."

"Hypo-... what?" I asked, unable to understand what he was saying. I might have listened to him speak about medicine and different problems while I had lived here... but I could only understand about a quarter of it.

"Hypothermia. If you're stuck in temperatures lower than about 34 degrees, your body starts to... malfunction, per say. The shivering is apart of it. It's the body trying to keep its' self warm." Kloppman explained to me, and although I didn't understand some of it, I got the general idea.

The girls shivering started to become more violent, and all of her limbs were flying. Her breathing had become loud and quick, as well as her heartbeat picking up. All signs of the body trying to keep warm, Kloppman told me.

After a few more moments of watching the girl and thinking his strategies over, Kloppman turned back to me.

"We need to get her outa these clothes." He told me before looking back toward the girl.

"Wut?" I did a double take and stared fearfully over at Kloppman and the girl from where I sat on his bed.

"The ice on her clothes has already started to melt. It'll just make it worse if we don't get them off of her. Run upstairs and grab a towel for her head, and I'll change her." Kloppman told me, his focus still centered on the girl.

"Wut about the guys? Wut if they wake up? Wut do I tell'em?" I asked; I mean it was passed the time Kloppman woke us up, and I wasn't even in bed. They were bound to think something was suspicious.

"Tell them no ones sellin' taday. They get to sleep in." Kloppman muttered quickly, "The towel, Mush."

I nodded to the old man, and left the room with one last glance to the girl. Her skin color was coming back, and her lips were even a soft pink now.

I gently closed the door behind me, and quietly made my way up the rickety stairs. When I reached the top and opened the door, I found everyone still snug in their beds and snoring. Letting out a sigh of relief, I made my way into the washroom and grabbed a, hopefully, clean towel. It looked clean enough. But once I exited the washroom, there were a good six or seven pairs of eyes on me. I paused in my tracks and watched as some of the guys sat up and stared at me with curiousness in their eyes.

"Kloppman hasn't gotten us up yet." Jack said, his feet hanging over the edge of his bed with his arms crossed over the top have of his underwear.

"And you're already outa bed and dressed." Boots added in, looking at me from his bed.

"Uhh.. Kloppman says no sellin' taday. Youse can sleep in." I said quickly, making my way through the rows of bunks toward the door... that was already blocked by Racetrack.

"Come on guys. I gotta get down to Kloppman." I growled, trying to push Race out of the way of the door.

"Not till ya tell us what's up." Racetrack told me, cigar between his teeth as he held his ground.

"I found dis goil." I finally growled, trying to push passed Racetrack once again.

"A goil! Man, you was out all night again?" Racetrack crowed, shoving me back as he glared at me.

I rolled my eyes to myself and finally got him out of my way. As I raced down the stairs, I could heard quite a few pairs of feet following behind me. At Kloppmans door, I knocked quickly, hoped he had put clothes on the girl and slammed the door behind me, right into Race's face.

"Aww, come on Mush! Can't we'se see 'er?" Racetrack begged after he let out a curse and rubbed his noise.

"Go back upstairs." Kloppman yelled over his shoulder. After I heard some not-so-happy foot steps go up the stairs, I turned to see Kloppman leaning over the girl. I supposed she had new clothes on, but she was covered up by the blankets of the bed. I quickly handed the towel to Kloppman, who rapped it around her hair.

"Why ain't she shiverin' anymore?" I asked as I came to his side, watching the tiny girl lay there.

"She fell unconscious after I took the clothes off of her. Now all we can do is wait."

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**The three reviews I've gotten have been absolutely amazing ^^ I love you guys!**

**So thanks you Izabeal Finley, xXEmiShaeXx (my bestest friend!) and Saya. Hikari. Uchiha for the entertaining reviews! **

**Emi: No, not creepy at all =D And don't pout; you were the first person after me to even HEAR about this!**

**Saya: He probably would have XD I just didn't want to have him soil himself and look a bit whimpy, lol**

**Love you!**

**~Scree  
**


	3. Mute

**The Train Ticket Girl**

**Chapter Three**

**Mute**

After Kloppman announced that all I had to was wait, the day just got slower. There was nothing to do other than sell for a news boy like me, so time off was just too rare. And when that rare time pulled around... I was stumped. Every body else had something to do, but me. Racetrack would grab some guys to play craps or poker, Jack would get into trouble or go see Sarah. David and Les were either at school or at home, Dutchy, Specs and some others would be reading, the younger boys might be found playing marbles... and then there was me. I didn't know how to read all that well, I didn't have a girl, I was too old for marbles. So that whole day I just sat on one of the old couches by the door, staring at Kloppman's room. I would have liked to stay in there and just talk to him about the girl, but he shooed me out, saying once she woke up, she wouldn't want to see me staring down at her. Yeah, like she'd want to see some old man instead.

A couple of times, Race and the others bugged me to tell them about the girl just on the other side of the door, but I just shrugged and ignored them. This was one thing I'd be bragging about for a while now. See, I was always the last one to know about something; say if Medda was having a party, Spot's boys were coming over for a game of poker or someone got tipped a buck. My luck at hearing about things ran thin, so now that I was the only one who knew about the girl sleeping in Kloppmans room, I felt rather proud of myself.

Just as the day had started crazily, in ended boring. It felt like just another day with the boys; get up, do something, go to bed. This continuing circle was starting to drive me mad! I wanted something exciting to happen in my life.

I trudged up the steps a few minutes earlier than I knew everyone else would, weary from a day of doing nothing but staring at a door, hoping that Kloppman might have news. I stripped of my clothing and climbed into my bed, flopping onto the thin, worn mattress with a swoosh of air coming from my nostrils. I closed my eyes, and almost instantly fell asleep.

Unlike the night before, I slept without trouble. It was a deep sleep, that would probably have me feeling more exhausted the next morning. I didn't dream, like every other night of my life. Some said it was a blessing... but I thought I was missing out. After all, most people talked about their dreams as though it was a second world they could live in. Things usually went their way, their was always a happy ending... even Specs said he "taught" himself to fly! So why didn't I get the honor?

I was rudely awaken out of my deep slumber by a rough shove to my shoulder. Of course, hoping that it wasn't important, I rolled away from the shake, burying my face on the chilly side of my pillow. Apparently, rolling away didn't make what ever it was go away, and I was only shaken harder. Letting out a groan, I slapped at whoever it was, mumbling I'd get up in a few moments.

"Mush! Get up!" A rough voice growled in my ear. Remember the voice belonged to Kloppman, I sat up, my eyes half opened in exhaustion.

"Wut? She awake yet?" I mumbled, stretching my bare shoulders.

"Nah. Hasn't moved since she went out." Kloppman mumbled, looking up at me from where he stood.

"Then why'm I up?" I hissed, flopping down against my pillow after I flashed him a glare.

"Cause I need to run out a get a few things, but I ain't just gonna run off and leave her here. And since I trust you, you're going to watch her." He told me, poking me in the chest.

I opened my right eye slowly, scrutinizing him.

"I thought ya didn't want 'er ta wake up to me standin' over 'er?" I growled, opening both of my eyes.

"Mush-!" Kloppman began, becoming agitated with me.

"Alright, alright. I'm up..." I mumbled, rolling off of my bed and hitting the messy floor feet first. I rummaged around the garbage on the floor for my clothing, slipped them on and walked down stairs, just behind Kloppman.

"If she does wake up, don't let her leave, alright?" Kloppman asked as he walked out the door, but didn't wait for my answer.

After cracking my neck on both sides, I sluggishly turned around and opened Kloppman's door. I closed my eyes as I yawned, turned around and closed the door behind myself. Letting my exhaustion get the better of me, I leaned my forehead against the wooden door for a moment, my eyes closed. After a couple of seconds, I turned around to see the girl sitting up in the bed she slept in, her big blue eyes widened in disbelief.

I stopped short, my tired eyes at once awake.

For a moment, when just stood and sat there, staring at each other; studying the way we looked and who we were.

Finally, I shook myself out of my momentary pause, and walked cauciously over to her bed. She didn't move, but only watched me as I sat down on the bed next to her.

"Hey there..." I mumbled, looking her outfit over. Kloppman had told me he put her in different clothes, but he must have changed her back, because she wore the clothes I found her in; a faded grayish brown long sleeved shirt that was so long it hid her hands, a brown vest and tan pants that were way too long. Her black shoes were sitting just under the bed, but they still looked like they were drying.

"I'm Mush." I told her after inspecting her clothing, "What's yoah name?"

The girl looked away from my eyes, sudddenly deep in thought like she couldn't exactly remember. But... how could she forget her name?

Turned back to me, she opened her mouth as though she was about to speak, but all that came out was a quiet squeak. Her faded blue eyes widened as she touched her throat in surprise.

"What's wrong?" I asked, confused by her gestures.

Once again, the girl opened her mouth, trying to speak. Only this time, nothing came out.

"You... can't talk?" I asked, guessing that's what she was trying to say.

She nodded her head slowly, confused why she couldn't.

"Well... uhm. Can you write?" I asked; I at least wanted some answers from her.

She nodded, so I got up and grabbed a blank notepad, as well as a pen, off of Kloppman's desk just outside the door. Once back sitting on her bed, I handed her the things, ready to ask the questions I've wanted to ask her since yesterday.

"So who are you? Where are you from? What about your name?" I asked her quickly, glancing at the pad and pen in her hands.

She put the pen to the pad, thought for a moment, and then began writing down some things. It wasn't a minute after she began that she held up the pad. There on the paper, scrawled in nice hand writing, were only three words.

_I can't remember. _

"You can't remember... anything?" I asked incredulously.

She nodded her head, her eyes looking confused and filled with terror.

"And... you can't talk?"

Again, she nodded her head.

So here I was, with a mute girl who couldn't remember who she was, where she was or where she was from.


	4. Authors Note!

**... I'm a bad person...**

**I am DEFINITELY updating the story as soon as I possibly can! I've looked back at the writing, and I'm unbelievably pleased with it!**

**So sorry I haven't update! School has been horrendous and my English teacher just wants to kill me... so yes!**

**This week I promise to devote time to typing a chapter for this and my Robin Hood story! **

***Cough*And my I-Search every once in a while*cough***

**Thanks for your patience guys!**

**~Scree  
**


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